Business in the Arts Networking Circle Presents I RAISE UP MY VOICE JESSIE MONTGOMERY Banner LOUISE FARRENC Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36 I. Adagio—Allegro II. Adagio cantabile III. Scherzo: Vivace IV. Finale: Allegro INTERMISSION LEONARD BERNSTEIN Songfest 1. To the Poem (Frank O’Hara) 2. The Pennycandystore Beyond the El (Lawrence Ferlinghetti) 3. A Julia de Burgos (Julia de Burgos) 4. To What You Said (Walt Whitman) 5. I, Too, Sing America (Langston Hughes)/ Okay “Negroes” (June Jordan) 6. To My Dear and Loving Husband (Anne Bradstreet) 7. Storyette H. M. (Gertrude Stein) 8. If you can’t eat you got to (e.e. cummings) 9. Music I Heard with You (Conrad Aiken) 10. Zizi’s Lament (Gregory Corso) 11. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed (Edna St. Vincent Millay) 12. Israfel (Edgar Allan Poe) Mary Evelyn Hangley, soprano Natalie Image, soprano Ashley Dixon, mezzo-soprano Chris Oglesby, tenor SeokJong Baek, baritone Christian Pursell, bass-baritone The 2018–2019 Season of Oakland Symphony is generously funded in part by the East Bay Community Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the California Arts Council, a state agency; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and the Oakland City Council and the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program. 2 OAKLAND SYMPHONY OAKLAND SYMPHONY 3 OAKLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA GUEST ARTISTS Michael Morgan, Music Director and Conductor Bryan Nies, Associate Conductor FIRST VIOLIN VIOLA ELECTRIC BASS TRUMPET Terrie Baune, Tiantian Lan, Patrick McCarthy William Harvey, Concertmaster Principal Principal Vivian Warkentin, Margaret Titchener, FLUTE Leonard Ott Asst. Concertmaster Asst. Principal Alice Lenahan, John Freeman Natasha Makhijani, Betsy London Principal Assoc. Concertmaster Stephanie Railsback Amy Likar TROMBONE Kristina Anderson Katy Juneau Rena Urso Bruce Chrisp, Carla Picchi Linda Green Principal Emanuela Nikiforova Clio Tilton OBOE Tom Hornig Stephanie Bibbo Andrea Plesnarski, Steve Trapani Baker Peeples CELLO Principal George Hayes Daniel Reiter, Robin May TUBA Gabrielle Wunsch Principal Scott Choate, Matthew Vincent Joseph Hébert, ENGLISH HORN Principal Maxine Nemerovski Asst. Principal Denis Harper Michelle Kwon TIMPANI MARY EVELYN HANGLEY, SOPRANO NATALIE IMAGE, SOPRANO SECOND VIOLIN Rebecca Roudman CLARINET Tyler Mack, Liana Bérubé, Elizabeth Bill Kalinkos, Principal first-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco second-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco Principal Vandervennet Principal A Opera, Mary Evelyn Hangley was praised A Opera, Natalie Image was a Metropolitan Sharon Calonico, Michael Graham Diane Maltester PERCUSSION for her “stunning dynamic range and control.” Opera National Council Grand Finalist, praised Asst. Principal Jeffrey Parish Ward Spangler, Soprano Hangley has been featured on the stages by the New York Times for her “pristine high Adrienne Duckworth Paul Rhodes BASS CLARINET Principal of the Glimmerglass Festival, Minnesota Opera, notes” and by Operawire for her “crystalline tone Sergi Goldman-Hull Ginger Kroft Allen Biggs and the War Memorial Opera House in San [which] swirled through the house.” Her singing Cecilia Huang BASS Kevin Neuhoff Francisco. Most recently, she performed the role has also been described as “crisp [and] buoyant” Robert Donehew Patrick McCarthy, BASSOON of Anna Sørensen in Kevin Put’s Silent Night with “sparkling coloratura and vocal cascades” by Alison Miller Principal Deborah Kramer, HARP at the Glimmerglass Festival. During her two the San Francisco Chronicle after the 2017 Merola Josepha Fath Alden Cohen, Principal Meredith Clark, years as a Resident Artist with Minnesota Opera, Grand Finale Concert. As a participant in the Hande Erdem Asst. Principal David Granger Principal Hangley sang leading roles for the company, Merola Opera Program, she also sang Clorinda in Ben Tudor Carolyn Lockhart including Musetta in La bohème, Woglinde Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Last December, Image Andy Butler KEYBOARD in Das Rheingold, and Contessa Almaviva in performed the title role in the North American Andy McCorkle HORN Hadley McCarroll, Le nozze di Figaro. In addition to numerous premiere of Alma Deutscher’s Cinderella with Meredith Brown, Principal comprimario roles, Hanley covered Freia in Opera San Jose. Other appearances have included Principal Das Rheingold, Millicent Jordan in the world performing Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 Alicia Telford PERSONNEL MANAGER premiere of Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight and as the Concerto Competition winner and Aurore Alex Camphouse Craig McAmis the title role in Massenet’s Thaïs. She has in Massenet’s Le Portrait de Manon with San Ross Gershenson participated in many of the country’s leading Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). Audra Loveland LIBRARIAN young artist programs, including Minnesota Past highlights include Handel’s Messiah with Paul Rhodes Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, and the the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Johanna Merola Opera Program. While at the Merola in Sweeney Todd (Opera on the Avalon), and RECORDING ENGINEER Opera Program, Hangley was praised by Opera Mrs. De Rocher in Dead Man Walking (Opera Tom Johnson, News for singing “…with considerable allure” NUOVA). Image completed her master’s degree Johnson Digital when taking over for an ill colleague mid- at SFCM in 2017, studying with César Ulloa. Audio performance of Conrad Susa’s Transformations. Her undergraduate studies were in Toronto, In concert, Hanley has sung Mendelssohn’s Canada, with the Glenn Gould School of the Elijah, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Saint-Saëns’ Royal Conservatory of Music. Christmas Oratorio, Schubert’s Mass in C major, and will be the soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem at SUNY Fredonia in Spring 2019. 4 OAKLAND SYMPHONY OAKLAND SYMPHONY 5 GUEST ARTISTS GUEST ARTISTS ASHLEY DIXON, MEZZO-SOPRANO CHRISTOPHER OGLESBY, TENOR SEOKJONG BAEK, BARITONE CHRISTIAN PURSELL, BASS-BARITONE second-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco enor Christopher Oglesby (Woodstock, Georgia) first-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco second-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco A Opera, Ashley Dixon made her San Francisco Tjoins San Francisco Opera, as an Adler fellow A Opera, South Korean baritone SeokJong Baek A Opera, bass-baritone Christian Pursell appeared Opera debut as a member of the Angel Quartet in for the 2019 Season. Most recently he was a was last seen in San Francisco as a participant in four San Francisco Opera productions last fall: It’s a Wonderful Life. As a participant in the 2017 Resident Artist at the Utah Opera, where he sang of the 2018 Merola Opera Program, where as Walter Raleigh in Roberto Devereux, a Jailer in Merola Opera Program, mezzo-soprano Dixon Tybalt in Romeo et Juliette and was the tenor he was featured in the Schwabacher Summer Tosca, Count Lamoral in Arabella, and an Angel sang the role of Popova in William Walton’s soloist for Handel’s Messiah with the Utah Concert. Recently he was a resident artist of the First Class in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s The Bear and also covered the title role in Rossini’s Symphony. This past summer, Oglesby debuted Lyric Opera of Kansas City during the 2018 It’s a Wonderful Life. As a participant in the La Cenerentola, ending her summer season on as Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress with season where he sang the role of Yamadori in 2017 Merola Opera Program, he received critical the War Memorial Opera House stage singing the Merola Opera Program. Previously, as an Madama Butterfly by Puccini. Baek has earned acclaim for his performance as Dandini in an aria from Massenet’s Cendrillon. Dixon’s education artist at the Dallas Opera, he appeared his Bachelor and Master’s degrees at Manhattan La Cenerentola. His 2017 season saw debuts at 2016–17 season included her debut with Michigan in Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne and in Davies’ School of Music in New York. Previous credits both Houston Grand Opera (Tom in Laura Opera Theatre in Copland’s The Tender Land The Three Little Pigs. An active soloist and include La Traviata (Germont) with Aspen Kaminsky’s Some Light Emerges) and the Vienna as Mrs. Splinters. In concert, Dixon appeared recitalist, Oglesby recently performed with the Music Festival, La bohéme (Marcello, cover) State Opera (Second Englishman in Prokofiev’s on the Hill Auditorium stage as a soloist in Utah Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic, Dallas with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance The Gambler), and he is featured on the 2017 Mozart’s Requiem and with University of Puccini Society, and Opera Diversitá. Other Program, Das land des Lächelns (Tschang), and world premiere recording of Greg Spears’ Michigan’s Men’s Glee Club in Schubert’s recent credits include Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Le roi l’a dit (Gautru) with Manhattan School of Fellow Travelers with the Cincinnati Symphony Ständchen. She also sang Dido in a concert Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Box in Music. Baek won 1st place at the 2018 Alan M. Orchestra. An avid concert soloist, recent performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Cox and Box with the Amalfi Coast Festival, and Joan Taub Ades Vocal competition, 3rd place performances include Britten’s War Requiem, University of Michigan’s conducting program. University of North Texas, and Opera in Concert. at the 2018 Gerda Lissiner International Vocal Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, and Beethoven’s In the same year, the Gerda Lissner Foundation He holds Bachelor of Music degrees in Vocal Competition, and a grant at the 2018 Giulio Symphony No. 9. Pursell’s upcoming engagements awarded her the Encouragement Award for Performance, Choral Education, and Band Gari competition. He is also a special prize include Samuel in Handel’s Saul with Philharmonia their Song/Lieder Competition in New York. Education from Lee University and a Master of winner at Sonora International competition Baroque Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert In past seasons, Dixon was engaged as a young Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Francisco Ariza in Mexico, 2nd place at Alfredo Hall and Handel’s Messiah with the Mormon artist with the Des Moines Metro Opera, where University of North Texas.